I haven't seen any non-internet business say they accept it. It's my understanding taxation on bitcoins transactions is a bit muddled right now. So I doubt that any business want to jump on that bandwagon till it's settled.

So much for the idea of a secure currency. Even the name is an oxymoron as there were no coins minted. It's really just bits and bytes, zeros and ones and there's no way to track them so it's much like losing your cash. Therefore, with the volatility of this "currency" why bother.

A different article on the same topic quoted the Japanese regulator's stance on bitcoins:

"Japan's financial regulators, by contrast, have largely given bitcoin a shrug. "Bitcoin is not a currency; it is an alternative to currencies, like gold," said a spokesman for the Financial Services Agency. "We are only responsible for currencies and therefore bitcoin is not subject to our regulatory oversight."

There is apparently still a lot of confidence in the currency with an exchange rate at over $500 per bitcoin. It's down about 50% from its peak but that still seems like an astronomically high valuation.

I've said it before and I'll say it again...what's the point. It's worth NOTHING until converted into REAL money. You can't hold it, you can't see it. So, you have to trade your bits and bytes for some currency in order for it to obtain it's value. And I doubt it will ever be universally accepted. So why bother unless you're a speculator.

The Bitcoin community may not exactly be dancing on the grave of Mt. Gox, the oldest and once-largest cryptocurrency exchange, which officially filed for banktrupcy in Japan Friday morning. But it's happy enough to step over Gox's corpse and go about business as usual. As of Friday afternoon, Bitcoin's exchange rate [...]

Someone who kept bitcoin on the exchange for reasons other than trading was taking a risk,

Bitcoin allows you to be in control of your own funds-- that is that you can hold onto your own private key. Anyone who left their funds with gox essentially gave someone else control of their funds which is ironic if you understand Bitcoin. Why would you do that?

remember that Bitcoin is a decentralized system (trustless i.e. no trust needed---trust is the Network itself). Mt Gox was a way of using a centralized system (i.e. you are putting trust into a third party) to exchange Bitcoin for National currencies such as U.S. Dollar.

Exchanges should not be used as wallets.

One way to control your own funds is through cold storage such as a paper wallet and brain wallet

see

and

You could even make a Brain Wallet so that you are the only one who knows how to access your Bitcoin (Advanced Users Only!)

Just like you wouldn't walk down the street with all your cash in your wallet you should keep all your Bitcoin online.

That said this is not advice, one must do plenty of due diligence before making any kind of investment decision. The fall of Gox just goes to show that people do not understand what they are investing in because this much Bitcoin should never have been parked with their service!

Bitcoin doesn't care about the bankruptcy of Gox because the "coins" haven't disappeared from the market. They were just "reallocated" to others so they never were out of circulation. The people who had them stolen are the only losers here. But then, it's just like having anything else stolen and they're not likely to get them back.

@pragmaticguy some Gox customer's think they owned Bitcoin when in reality it appears these transaction occurred off the block chain.Not sure but they may have been using fractional reserve (perhaps fictional reserve is a better term)

W/Madoff you had investors thinking they had a position in a stock but no trading actually occurred

Bitcoin is a fiat currency (i.e. users have to have "faith" in the currency). I barely trust the full faith and credit implied in the USD, can you imagine how I feel about the pirates creating bitcoin?

Since Bitcoin is now property, any trades with it means that it is barter, not purchase. This is going to create havoc for anyone using it plus now all trades have to be reported. I can only imagine the work that accountants are going to have filling out schedule D on tax forms because each time one is used it's another trade and becomes a long or short term capital gain or loss.

This is true but if you're the type who would spend them on daily purchases the capital gains form will be pages long. This will be a good thing for people who buy and hold hoping they go up in value. But it also means that as a currency, Bitcoin may just not be suitable.